What Clarko says
37. Brendan Whitecross
Welcome back to my summer series.
Brendan Whitecross will once again wear the number 37 guernsey for the Hawks in season 2012. Brendan is entering his fifth season at Hawthorn in 2012 having been recruited from Queensland in the draft at the end of 2007.
Whitey played his 50th game in our preliminary final loss to Collingwood. He is an unassuming and unobtrusive player at this point in time, at 21 years old we're really happy with his progression to date.
What we liked about this young player when he first came on the scene was his ability to win the football - he's developed a really strong and aggressive attack on the footy and we really think as the years progress he'll develop into a key midfielder. He played most of his early football for Hawthorn in defense and more recently up forward where he's contributed quiet prominently.
He's played 37 games in the last two seasons so he's cemented his spot in the side. He had an injury late in the preseason last year that disrupted the early part of his 2011 season but once he got back into the side in round 7 he was able to make a pretty solid contribution to the side - retaining his spot for the rest of the year.
With another strong preseason more opportunities in the midfield will come his way this year, and we're expecting he'll emerge as a pretty important player - coming through with fellow three to five year players including Schoenmakers, Shiels, Breust, Suckling - these players are going to be the guys that help push us toward premiership glory.
So keep your eye on Brendan in 2012.
I look forward to tomorrow featuring a new player on our list Alex Woodward, Alex has just been drafted to our list from the Sandringham Dragons.
Until then, this is your coach Alastair Clarkson signing off.
